


The empires nightmare

by Wolf_Man



Category: Prototype (Video Games), Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-27 23:59:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10819467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolf_Man/pseuds/Wolf_Man
Summary: Alex Mercer; a name that had once struck fear into all who knew it, and what it represented. Now after untold aeons he has returned, the universe is not prepared.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Im cross posting this from fanfiction.net.

**Hello ladies and gentleman I present you with the prologue to my new crossover. Now if you are wondering what happened to heller before this story I recommend you read "Lies of the father" It is the backstory for all my prototype stories.**

Alex J. Mercer was a being of numerous talents, and well over a thousand different lifetimes of experience. Even though he himself was only a few years old, the philosophers within his mind proclaimed it poetic and sad. A monster with a thousand faces, yet he lacked a face of his own. The closest thing he had was the face of his creator.

At the moment Alex was simply standing beside his stolen commercial helicopter, enjoying the memories of a particularly annoying young victim of his. He took great pleasure in reliving her final moments of despair. In truth he was distracting himself from his own inner turmoil; in the last few months he had come across two contradictory examples of humanity.

James Heller was the perfect example of everything wrong with humanity, a savage with no free will. Constantly following the orders of others in his human life as a soldier, and then when Alex decided to gift the fool with freedom what did he do? He turned on him, killing several of his evolved servants and attempting to devour him!

The only good thing that came of Heller were the tendril abilities his mutant strain created, Alex thought as he lifted his hand forming a mass of black and red tentacles in the shape of a small sphere.

He had been given the polar opposite in the form of Amaya. She was smart; unlike her father she refused to be led by others, and she never took anything at face value. If not for her misplaced affection for her father and her annoyingly resilient Dna she would have been a perfect candidate to evolve.

Alex had been prepared for people to resist, just as any animal would resist when being forced to take it's medicine. They simply didn't know what was best for them. What he had not been prepared for was the sheer unquestioning nature of the majority of the city.

Blackwatch shoots civilians and no one questions them, following the words of a government that had betrayed them. Unlike New York, the cover up here was a complete failure. People knew of the horrors blackwatch was committing and still they sat back and watched like the sheep they were. He had hoped to drive the wolves apart from the sheep, drive the strong from the weak, and then evolve them. Instead they cowered and almost no one had shown themselves to be worthy.

Thus he had been brought back to the same question he always had, was humanity worth saving? There was so little of humanity worth evolving. Were those few enough to justify keeping the rest of humanity alive to breed new minds? Perhaps wiping out humanity and starting anew would be a better idea. It would take centuries of genetic manipulation to evolve the virus enough to make new complex minds from nothing; but perhaps a world free of humanity would be a better place?

It had also become clear that his sister would always be in danger as long as he tried to remake the world. She refused to stay away no matter what he said or did. She refused to accept that the world needed to be remade, and even knowing they weren't truly siblings, he couldn't lift a hand against her.

He had been tempted so many times to simply evolve her and keep her by his side for the rest of eternity. His hand had been stayed by one simple fact; she didn't want to be a monster. If it had been anyone else, he would have evolved her and changed her mind around until she either enjoyed it or didn't mind. He couldn't do that to her. She was the first person he had ever cared for and beyond that, despite everything he knew, she was his sister.

The thought finally hit him; he would test humanity. He would hibernate for thousands of years, so long that blackwatch would have faded and his sister would be long dead. If he remained here he would be driven to be close to his sister, and she deserved a happy life without him trying to remake the world. When he awoke, if humanity still stood then it would prove humans were worth saving. If he awoke to humanity being dead than he would start anew.

Alex Mercer nodded to himself while lifting the helicopter with one hand, throwing it into the neighboring forest. He then proceeded to slam his hand into the ground, his hand morphing into tendrils. The tendrils dug ever deeper into the depths of the earth, searching and searching. Until finally, exactly one hour after Mercer had originally began tunneling, they found what they were looking for.

It was a large thermal chamber, obviously part of a large volcanic network. Though it appeared to have been cut off from the main vents, magma flowed around the chamber heating it to blistering temperatures. A perfect place for the virus to slumber without anyone finding it, with the added benefit of allowing the virus to evolve a higher resistance to heat while it remained dormant.

Mercer's form shudder and flowed into the ground with a sickening crack, the tendrils all pulling towards the thermal was over in a matter of minutes. The entirety of the virus was resting within the chamber. The virus layered the inner walls of the chamber, with a thick gray and black carapace.

The carapace was quite similar to Mercers own armored form, with a few key differences. If one were to look closly at the outer layer of the carapace they would discover a series of tiny scale's with a slight reflective surface. If someone were to pull back the scales they would discover layers of nearly impossibly dense ceramic plating. These scales and plates helped to isolate the inner layers of the virus.

Within the carapace black growths covered everything, small glowing orange pustules bathed the inner chamber in a warm orange glow. Mercer stood within the center before melting into the floor of the carapace and fading into the black void of slumber.

**End mercers pov**

**Thus deep within the crust of the earth the being known as Alex Mercer, Blacklight, Zeus, and The Monster of Manhattan slept. When he awoke he would be unprepared for the world above, but the world above was even less prepared to deal with him.**

**Sooooo...Love it? Hate it? Let me know in the reviews. On another note own nothing please don't sue me...**


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alex awakens to a different world

**Storm Trooper (Shepard) pov**

The galaxy was a massive place, it was enough to make even the greatest of men feel small. So it was no surprise that one John Shepard, an imperial officer fresh out of the academy would feel this way as well.

He had hoped to get a short action packed mission for his first job, something to get him noticed. Instead he was being sent to some distant planet in the backend of the universe. All to check up on some mining outpost that had failed to send their monthly report. Nothing could make a man feel less important than getting stuck guarding a group of repair men.

At least he wasn't alone in his suffering, Shepard mused. He was stuck on guard duty with four other academy rookies and a single lieutenant. While this mission was officially a scout and rescue mission, in truth they were an escort. This wasn't the first time an outpost's communications system broke down, and the workers there were unable to fix it. The lack of repairs either due to lack of knowledge or supplies to fix it.

It was a common problem on distant mining worlds. "The Empire didn't want to waste any more ships than they had to. Because of this, they had created a system where every month, after a progress report, they sent a ship loaded with supplies. The supplies were than offloaded and the ship then was filled with whatever the miners had collected.

Though on these occasions it had to be treated like an actual mission just in case it was a rebel attack, in addition to giving the Empire a chance to test some of their new recruits.

They were currently stuck on a rather small starship, no bigger than two hundred square feet. It was an old model, in fact after this mission it was set to be decommissioned and scrapped for parts. It only had a class six hyperdrive system, so the trip had taken nearly three weeks to arrive.

Kinda sad though, Shepard thought. Apparently the ship had once had a class one point five hyperdrive before it crashed. It had received heavy damage when the empire acquired it and they had found it wasn't worth the cost to fully restore it. They had removed the rust and made minimal repairs to the engine. So now it was stuck ferrying rookies and repair men to a desert planet in the middle of nowhere.

Shepard sighed as he looked out a nearby view port. He could clearly see the planet below, its surface a baron desert. The third planet from it's stars orbit, a large grey moon orbited around it.

At that moment, Shepard and the other recruits were standing around what had once been a star map, their pilot was to busy driving to notice or care. The lieutenant had commandeered the ship's main dormitory for himself; while the repair crew slept in the cargo hold. They had decided to sleep in the central hub of the ship around the old holo projector.

Suddenly, the lieutenant burst in. "Troopers, armor up. We land in thirty minutes." The lieutenant barked at them. They saluted as he left to make sure the engineers were ready for our landing.

Shepard was quite pleased to be back in his armor. It made him feel like an actual soldier, rather than an escort.

**(Storm trooper group) pov**

The ship landing had gone perfectly. They had set down on a simple metal pad set up to receive cargo off far larger ships than their own. The planet had apparently been packed with iron. Everything seemed perfectly fine; the only disconcerting thing had been the lack of response they had gotten when attempting to hail a crew to help them unload their cargo.

As Shepard looked out from the ship's landing pad for the first time everything seemed fine. There were quite a few tents and what looked like mud huts surrounding a rocky plateau. They had dug down through it to bypass the sand, a metal door buried in the rock face shone brightly as the suns rays reflected off its surface.

It took exactly three minutes for Shepard to realize what was wrong. The whole place was silent, and seemingly empty.

"This is lieutenant Josh Ford. Please stand by, this is starting to look like a lot more than a comms break down." Josh spoke into his radio, no doubt warning the engineers to stay inside. "All right, looks like we need to fan out. Look for any survivors on the surface. We split up into teams of two, Gregory you're with Bendack Search east, Porkins you're with James search west, Josh you're with me we search north. Don't stop till we reach that door. We meet up in thirty and search the mine; radio in anything that looks suspicious." Josh said as he glared at the nearby tents.

**Line break**

They met in front of the door to the mine and to say the search was a waste of time would be an understatement in Shepard's opinion. The only odd things were a couple of knocked over tents and weapons scattered randomly along the ground.

"This camp is empty, if there are any survivors left they must be in the mine. Be careful, we have no idea what happened here." Josh grimaced as he opened the elevator door. All were silent as they went down, whether that was do to their training or the fact not a single one of them were willing to break the chilling atmosphere is anyones guess.

As the doors slowly opened, they each held their pistols at the ready. The doors opened to reveal nothing but ominous darkness, the group of Stormtroopers remaining silent for a few minutes as they scanned for a threat.

"Looks like the generator powering the lights is offline; we're going to need to activate the auxiliary generator if we want to search the lower..." Josh was cut off by the sound of machinery and lights whirring to life.

The lights revealed a massive chamber; more weapons and mining tools littered the ground, except this time there were far more signs of a struggle. Racks that once held the mining tools were flipped up like barriers trying to block something from the lower parts of the mines. Blood covered parts of the ground and walls, yet still there were no signs of any bodies.

"Ok... Looks like the emergency generator kicked in when it detected our life signs." Josh said as he walked off the elevator platform and towards the blood covered floor examining it closely.

The rest of the troopers spread out as they searched the main chamber for anything that looked out of place. Shepard was looking through an upturned storage crate. It was full of rotten food and old miner helmets.

"Sir, I got something." James shouted. He was standing near a tunnel that seemed to be slowly sloping downward into the deeper parts of the mine.

They all rushed over hoping for some signs of life, and sure enough there was a footprint in the dried blood. It was pointing towards the tunnel leading down.

"Looks like there may be someone alive down here after all." Shepard smiled hope filling him, they may be able to save someone after all. Josh simply grimaced as he pointed towards the tunnel.

This went on for the next hour. They would come across a main chamber full of splashes of blood, rotten food, and weapons. Each time they found the same foot print pointing ever downward.

"This has to be a trap, someone or something wants us down here." Josh said grimily clenching his pistol tighter, they had just reached the third chamber.

"What?!" Shepard barked.

"How can you be sure?" Porkins asked looking left and right in his panic.

Josh opened his mouth to answer but Davek beat him to the punch.

"It's the same foot print in the same place and pointing down. It is always placed in the exact same way, and some of the blood looks like it was moved. Plus there are no other foot prints in the whole facility. Whatever it is doesn't care if we know it's a trap..." Davek explained as he touched the dried blood lightly.

"After this mission I'm suggesting you for a promotion." Josh said a small amount of respect peaking through his voice.

"So what do we do?" Shepard asked, worry tainting his voice.

"There should only be one chamber left after we pass through the tunnel in the next chamber, we go in cautiously and ready for anything." Josh spoke in a commanding voice. They all nodded as they followed him down the final tunnel. They had made it about half way through the tunnel when something fell from the ceiling smacking Porkins in the face.

He screamed as he jumped back, hanging down from the ceiling was a Gungan head. It was suspended by it's disembodied spine, stuck to the ceiling by some strange black substance.

They took a minute to examine the head. "It looks just like senator Binks. The spine looks as if something just ripped it out." Davek noted with a raised eyebrow. He poked the head lightly casing it to swing back and forth.

"Stop that!" Shepard growled as he grabbed Davek's hand.

"Fine, calm down." Davek said as he tore his hand free with a glare.

TThey continued on, finally reaching the main chamber. This chamber appeared to be covered in a thick layer of obsidian. Probably an ancient magma vent, but what stood out most were the growths covering the drill. Black tentacles and orange pustules now covered the drill. They appeared to have originated from a large grey structure the drill must have hit.

They approached the drill slowly, ready to blast anything that jumped at them. Josh had just opened his mouth to speak when the troopers all heard a slow, loud clap. They all spun around to see a figure standing in front of the tunnel they had just left. The figure was wearing some very odd clothing. A jacket made of some dark material with white rings around the upper arms. A grey hood covered his head, his shirt connecting to the hood of the same color. It's pants were blue and it had some very plain shoes. It appeared to be male.

Despite the figure's strange clothing it would have looked pedestrian, if not for it's ethereal blue eyes that seemed to glow from beneath it's hood. "I was starting to worry I'd have to wait another eternity for you fools to come pick me up." He stated in a bored tone.

"Civilians should show some respect. We are Imperial Stormtroopers, soldiers of the Galactic Empire. Now put your hands in the air and tell us what happened to the rest of the mining crew." Josh spoke, following standard imperial operating procedures.

The being laughed, and they all felt shivers running up their spines, there was a horrible unnatural quality to its laugh. "I've gone by many names and yet this is the first time someone has called me a civilian. As for what happened here... Well, isn't it obvious? I killed them." The man smirked.

The troopers raised their blasters charging them quickly. "Why?" Shepard shouted, hopes of saving anyone squashed.

"Well I was quite peckish after my nap, and they woke me up. Apparently I can be quite cranky when I'm woken up early." The creature chuckled.

That was the straw that broke the Dewback's back as Shepard screamed in anger, firing his missed as the creature somehow blurred away. The others joined in, but their shots never found their target. The man rushed Porkins, his arms and hands becoming covered by black spikes and large claws. He lifted Porkins into the air, quickly throwing him into Davek and bowling them over hard enough to slam them against the far wall.

Josh got a lucky shot as the creature was rushing towards Shepard, the blaster was over charged with explosive rounds. The blast struck the creature in the back of its head causing it to explode. But instead of falling, it simply kept going. Black tendrils rose from his neck, forming a new head even as he knocked Shepard aside. "Hmm...Those guns pack more of a punch then those miner's peashooters." The creature smirked with it's recently reformed head.

Shepard was too shocked to continue firing, and the creature was on him in mere moments. Before Josh could fire again, tentacles ripped into Shepard. He screamed in agony before his body was broken with a sickening crack, dragged into the man's flesh. The killer then rushed towards Porkins and Davek, even as Josh blew a hole in its side. Tentacles stabbed them both, dragging the troopers into itself.

The creature turned to Josh who had turned his blaster pistol to automatic fire mode. Unloading far more shots though they were far weaker, it didn't make much difference though as the creature dodged most of the shots and those that hit were quickly healed. The freaks left arm changed into a two pronged spike on it's hands.

Suddenly they were across the room, having impaled Josh and James. They were yanked straight towards the creature, their weapons having dropped upon the spikes entering there guts. With a single loud crack and slurping sound they were both consumed by darkness.

**Alex pov**

Alex Mercer was quite pleased with himself. He had been awoken by some foolish creatures mining and upon devouring them had discovered that the galaxy was far larger than he had originally anticipated. It seemed as though humanity had wiped itself out in his absence, but in its place Alex had gained a whole galaxy to , this galaxy seemed to be full of the same suffering and corruption humanity had. Now Alex realized he had an entire universe to cure.

There were whole new evolutionary paths out there. Strands of Dna he had never even dreamed of. But for the moment he had a space ship to collect, he thought as he shifted into the lieutenant and began walking back to the ship.

**Ten minutes later**

Mercer pressed the button opening the door to the outside, sprinting painfully slowly towards the ship. He faked panting for air, giving himself a breathless quality as he hailed the ship through the radio he acquired. "There's a monster in the mines; open the cargo bay!" He shouted into it. The ship lumbered open, and he climbed aboard.

As for what happened on that ship... Well, if there had been another living being on the planet they would hear have never forgotten the screams.


	3. Chapter 3

**I just wanted to give a big shout out to my friend Cybertramon001 and Doctor dandy, they helped me get back into writing and helped me edit the last few chapters.**

Alex Mercer was proud, a terrifying idea unto itself. Though this was a strange occasion for him. Instead of feeling pride for a horrific and masterful attack on his enemies, it was for removing the rust from his newly 'acquired' ship and tossing out the supplies that were useless to his needs.

He kept the credits though; he preferred ripping his threats apart or manipulate them from within. Yet greed could be just as an effective weapon in one's arsenal and a good way to make people look the other way when he needed to take something.

Altogether, it was actually an unimpressive feat, and one that most people would have taken some meager pride in. But it wasn't the cleaning itself that he felt proud about; instead his pride was from the way he had gone about cleaning the ship.

Crawling along the ships sides were small orange glowing slugs; his newest creations. By recombining the DNA of an average slug with that of a metal eating bacteria; he had created a race of rust devouring slugs. The slugs had eaten away the remaining rust and chipping paint. They had revealed the ships name plate burried under a thick patch of rust; the ship had once been called the Ebon Hawk.

After the rust had been removed Alex had reabsorbed the slugs, building another creature in its place. This one was far larger and had a vaguely humanoid shape. But that was the only thing it had in common with a human. It stood on a base of four stubby legs, its stomach making up most of it's bodies. It lacked arms and a head; standing at four feet tall.

It's skin was the same hue as a white human, but with random growths that formed spikes along its front. Its back was covered in two rows of four, clear sacks going from the creatures lower back all the way up to where it's shoulders should have been. Its front also split open revealing large curved teeth and several long tentacles.

Alex had dubbed the creature the Devourer, it was specially designed to devour any form of biomass. He had created it to spesifically deal with the large amounts of processed food on board the ship.

While he could consume processed food and long dead corpses like any other organic thing he came across, he found the process of removing any unknown chemicals, drugs, or pieces of metal to be annoying and time-consuming. The devourer had a specially designed digestive system that allowed it to break down even the most stubborn biomass without risk of losing any. It could also devour non organic matter and break it down into a liquid form that could then be integrated into his infected.

The sacks along its back filled with the biomass from the stores, and glowed orange when completely filled. From there he could simply pull one of the sacks off and devour it, absorbing the processed and purified biomass into himself. The Devourer would then use biomass to grow more sacks to replace them. It also had an excellent defense mechanism beyond its large jaw; it could spit its stomach acid at opponents. Overall it was a very useful creature; Mercer congragulated himself as he devoured it, the creatures were bound to come in handy later but at the moment they would only draw attention.

Overall the cleaning of the ship was an excellent trial run for the creatures,s. He had worried that the acid within his devourers would've been too powerful, and accidentally destroy them from the inside out. There had been some damage, true, but he had altered the design to include chitonous plates lining the stomach.

It was time to leave the planet but first he had to get rid of all evidence that anything other than a natural disaster had happened. He slammed his hand into the ground, using his new biomass to form tendrils. The tendrils ripped the mine walls apart and destroyed the supports, leaving it barely holding together. He watched with a small amount of amusement as the plateau collapsed, dust billowing through the miner's makeshift camp.

He felt pleased with himself as he finally sat in the pilot's seat. He was free, full of biomass, and no one the wiser of his return. The thought occurred he would have to start hunting down the best pilots in the galaxy at some point in the future. With a small smirk Mercer set his course to the nearest inhabited planet.

**Line break**

It had taken nearly two hours to reach the planet, Mercer grimaced; he needed to repair the ship back to full working order. At the moment it was hard to believe it had been such a fast ship. From what he could gather off the ships corrupted star map, this planet was far enough away from the Empire that lawlessness was the norm; the planet was known as Dostrore.

This suited Alex just fine. While a more economically stable planet would provide higher quality parts and repairs for the ship, one such as this would allow him more freedom to remove members of the populace without being noticed by the Empire. Until he knew their full capabilities, he would err on the side of caution.

The planets geography was rather unimpressive, it had one moon and a set of two red dwarf stars that functioned as its sun and was a near constant one hundred and five degrees. It was also covered in a large desert of red sand, its main city (if that's what you wanted to call it) being a series of buildings made of old rusted scrap metal. It was surrounded by a large scrap wall, probably put into place to prevent the sand and any native beasts from getting in.

Mercer landed on a metal platform connected to the scrap wall. It was one of many makeshift landing pads attached to the outside. Mercer walked through a metal door that appeared to have once been a ships bulkhead.

Inside was a system of hazardous looking paths, constructed from old ship parts and suspended from the ceiling by a series of metallic cables. The paths connected to doors most likely leading to more landing pads; most of the paths leading down to ground level. Said ground level consisted of a main 'street' of packed dirt lined with different stores. The street had branching paths leading into back alleys and smaller stores. There were three main stores, and one large building which most likely functioned as housing of some kind.

The odd vendor littered the streets selling whatever scrap they had come across, but what stood out most was the number of spice salesmen and the addicts littering the streets. The Empire had supposedly stopped a vast majority of the spice trade, yet it looked as if the empire had the same problem all human governments had; sentient life was by nature greedy.

A couple of credits here and there and suddenly there was a mine set up to gather "Iron". Mercer couldn't help but roll his eyes as he approached one of the larger stores with a sign reading Argo's ship and robot repairs, hopefully it would be worth his time.

Upon entering the shop two things stood out to him. First was the tall dark haired Wookie with a metal collar around its throat. It had a scar across its face going from one eye to the other, the scar tissue having stopped hair from regrowing. The scar was made by some three clawed beast. In another corner stood a creature that was a bit harder to recognize. It was an Abyssin, standing at about six and a half feet tall with skin a withered green color, the most striking thing about it was its single cycloptic eye that took up most of its head.

The walls were also covered in random parts and tools, the front desk was made from a ships star map that had been cut in half. Hovering behind the desk was an old wrinkled Toydarian, no doubt this was Argo. Around the room stood random aliens awaiting their turn to barter with him. Some had droids or broken pieces taken from their ships.

Argo was currently engaged in conversation with what looked like a regular human. "...For the last time, no credits, no repairs! Now get out of my shop!" The man smashed his fist into the counter growling in rage. "Rhagnar escort this trash out of my store." Argo called out unimpressed

The Wookie began walking towards the man, who began pulling out his pistol. Alex quickly calculated even as the Wookie was lifting his bowcaster to retaliate. The Wookie wouldn't be fast enough to stop the man from killing Argo, and maybe one other. His skills were useless in interrogating the dead. If he wanted information and repairs, he was going to have to step in himself.

For those that had actually noticed his entry and had been watching him, all they could perceive was a blur of motion. Before they could truly understand what had happened, the fight was over. The blaster fell from the man's hand as he stared down in shock. Through the center of his chest was a fist, blood pooled onto the floor as his vision was consumed by darkness.

Mercer watched as the man went limp while resisting the urge to devour the man on the spot. He had already made a spectacle, no need to draw more attention to himself. He scowled as he shoved the man off his fist, the man's head slamming into the desk with a thud as the body slid to the floor. Mercer stepped over the corpse and crushed the blaster pistol under his foot. He turned and kicked the corpse towards the doorway, though he used a bit too much of his strength as the corpse flew out the door.

The entire store had gone silent; stares glued upon Mercer's unmoving form. The Wookie shifted its bowcaster in his direction while the Abyssin reached for its own weapon. "Alright boys, settle down. Weapons away." Argo said, waving a hand. He gave Alex a once over. "I suppose you did alright killing off that idiot. Welcome to Argo's Ship and Robot Repairs. Here's the rules: no starting fights, no stealing, and no wasting my time. You have a problem with the rules, and we have a problem with you." He looked down at the counter, rubbing it where the idiot had banged his head. "Now, what business do you have?"

"My ship is need of repairs; the Hyperdrive got screwed up pretty badly." Alex said in a bored tone, flicking the gore from his hand.

"Heh. You and everyone else on this rock. You got credits?"

"Of course. What do I look like, an idiot?"

"Well I'll need to take a look at it but first we must discuss payment. Of course you will receive a small discount for saving my life." Argo chuckled hoping for some reaction from his customer. While Argo was used to working with criminals, he had never had as much trouble reading someone as he was having with Mercer. The Human looking creature sent chills down his spine just looking at him.

Personally, Argo thought that he looked like a scoundrel. But his actions were far too brutal to be a mere scoundrel. They preferred to talk their way out of a problem. He acted much more like a bounty hunter; one of those who never brought a target in alive. While he was glad for the save, he wanted this man out of his store. People like that tend to start shooting for no reason.

"So, what exactly are you in the market for? We have several options, ranging from legal to... otherwise." He was torn between wanting this man gone as fast as possible, and getting as many credits out of him as he could. If he was a Bounty Hunter, he had to be loaded. " I just want a three point system." Alex replied cooly. "I'm planning on entering Empire space."

"I see. Well, those are rather expensive out here. The Imperials aren't just handing them out. Usually I sell one for about eight thousand credits, plus two thousand for installation. Considering you saved me the trouble of dealing with that idiot, I'm willing to put it down." Argo explained.

Alex stabbed a finger into the counter, sinking it down to the first knuckle. He then scraped it along, leaving a groove in the metal surface. "...one thousand credits. Nice try, But the average market price for a brand new class three hyperdrive is only seven thousand in total. Plus I'm not interested in a brand new one; I just want my old one repaired to match their specifications."

"Maybe you missed the part where they're pretty rare out here. They may be seven thousand on Corusant where everyone and their grannies can get them, but out here we've only got a few hundred in total. Six thousand. Any lower and I'm losing money." Argo growled

If a place like this gets a new hyperdrive, it's probably close to trash with about a couple million light years on the clock. Even if it started off at ten thousand, it's definitely not worth it now. Four thousand." Alex fought the urge to just consume him and be done with it. He'd have to kill everyone else, and odds were that a few would slip away. They'd tell their friends, their friends would tell their friends, and then there'd be a witch hunt for him. It was better in the long term to play it careful, at least for now.

""FOUR?!" Argo nearly exploded. "Is your head screwed on straight?! I couldn't keep my debtors at bay with that kind of money. Hell, my slaves cost more than that!" Argo's Wookie got into Alex's personal space, growling deeply and holding his bowcaster. Sighing in frustration, Alex reached out with one arm. He wrenched the weapon out of the creatures hands, bending it in his grip. He than grabbed the Wookie by the arm and snapped it like a wishbone. The Wookie roared in pain, only falling silent when Alex backhanded him into the wall.

"...Five thousand. Either pay up, or hurry up and kill me." Argo bluffed hoping the creature across from him wouldn't kill him over a thousand credits.

Alex tossed some credit chits onto the counter. "You get three thousand now, and two more when I'm done with my job and I know you haven't sabotaged my engine. The ship's called the Ebon Hawk. Have it done within the hour." He turned away, walking back out and leaving Argo to grumble about 'cheap bounty hunters'. Well, he was stuck in the closest thing to 'civilisation' in these parts. Might as well gather some more 'intel'.

Argo had felt true relief when Mercer dropped the money on his desk. It occurred to him as Mercer left, what had bothered him so much about his presence. He was too still; he did not breathe, did not blink and did not twitch. All living things made small movements even when trying their hardest to remain still. Even droids occasionally moved and vibrated from the motors and gears within their bodies, yet Mercer had lacked even that.

**Line break**

Daka Gavalun was an Arkanian following in the footsteps of his childhood hero, Arca Jeth. He had joined the Jedi order later than most recruits, but despite this handicap had quickly completed his padawan training. Becoming a Jedi Knight was obvious to him, with his skills and training he had served the lesser beings of the council...The council of Jedi faithfully. His genetic superiority had made it an easy task, as expected of his race.

Though he would admit, the last mission he had been given by the council before their destruction at the hands of the Empire had been his greatest challenge. They had entrusted him to show a young Twi'lek around for her first few missions, reducing his position to babysitter. The council fell before they could return to the temple for 'betraying the Republic and attempting to assassinate Chancellor Palpatine. However, as a Knight, he was privy to a secret broadcast from Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, telling how the Sith had taken control of the Republic and any surviving Jedi must go into hiding. Thus, he had been stuck taking care of the padawan for the past five years. They had drifted from planet to planet, wandering as they avoided the Empire's steely gaze and their Inquisitors.

He had even memorized the inferior creature's name; it was Lezbiso.

Even after the fall of the Jedi order and the loss of her fellow padawans, she remained far too upbeat. He hated to admit it even to himself, but he had grown rather fond of the creature and it's overly annoying voice. They had run into a bit of bad luck over a month ago though. Their ship's engine had failed on them, and they had unfortunately been stranded on a desolate desert world that was within range. Despite his superior nature the inhabitants had been less than helpful, with one particularly irate and inconsiderate shop keeper throwing them out of his store.

Their ship had also been robbed of many parts while they had been out, leaving them worse off than when they arrived. At this point, they were simply looking for someone who would provide them safe passage off the planet without costing them everything they owned. He hoped to find someone who could help him return to his home world; he could claim the Twi'lek was his new pet project. They hadn't had much luck though; no matter what he said to appease the lower life forms of the planet, they always grew angry and unreasonable with him.

Every attempt to point out the truth of his superiority ended with them shouting at him like the savages they were. Luckily, Lezbiso had been very useful in calming them down, her Padawan training put to good use. Yet she was as unable as he was to gain passage on a ship. Though she didn't say anything, he caught the looks people gave her out on the streets. No doubt there had been takers; they simply wanted too much from her.

He had been passing by that horrible store they had been thrown out of when a strange looking human walked down a back alley, quickly followed by four Rodian thugs waiting the man who was obviously new here, and that meant he had to have a ship.

When the two of them dropped in and saved him from those thugs like the heroes they were, the man would obviously be grateful and thus have no choice but to help them get off planet. Assured of his own brilliance, he informed Lezbiso of what he had seen and led her in after the criminals.

**Line break**

Alex smirked inwardly as he left the store. Despite some potential setbacks, his ship was going to be repaired. Then, once they were in the relative quiet of his ship, he could feast on Argos and his workers. The shopkeeper's wings were far too small to keep his mass afloat; if he could adapt that to his own DNA, he could possibly obtain flight able to lift his own dense mass. Aditionally, there could be something just as useful in the others. He had a buffet of species to feast on out here; some of them were bound to have something he could use.

Just as he expected, the moment he turned into a dark alley, the criminal element swarmed like flies on a carcass. He was tempted to just keep walking and see how long and how visibly they'd follow him before breaking off or grabbing him outright, but he was feeling a little peckish after seeing the spread in the store and felt he deserved an early meal. Thus, instead of walking out the other end, he simply stopped and faced his pursuers. A quartet of Rodians, bug-faced aliens with massive eyes and small proposis mouths. They all started; clearly, they never had someone face them so brazenly before.

A turquoise coloured Rodian stood at the front, clearly armed. "Human. Your credits and your ship, or your life." The Rodian spoke, obviously the leader of the small group. Alex smirked as he slowly tilted his head to the right.

"Hmm... I don't see that happening, but I must thank you; your stupidity has driven off my boredom for at least another minute." Alex grinned as they growled, speaking some gibberish that was no doubt their language.

"Human, last chance before we shoot!" The turquoise Rodian grimaced.

"I really must stop playing with my food." He shifted his arms into claws; the Rodians stepping back in shock as his skin and clothes turned black and spiky, his fingers turning into metre-long claws. His eyes flared a chilling blue as he chuckled. Keeping their heads, the crooks immediately opened fire, but the plasma rounds were far slower than the bullets Alex was used to. He easily jumped over them, bouncing off the walls and and landing before the leader.

His body fell into two pieces, cleanly bisected down the middle. Tendrils reached out and grabbed the two bits, pulling them into himself. The surviving three fired several shots at Alex, the range too close for him to dodge. A hole was blasted through one arm and his chest gained scorch marks. They were expecting him to keel over dead when the wounds simply healed over and he ripped the next one into shreds, gobbling the slices. He held the other aloft about to devour him when his terrified friend dropped his weapon and ran for it.

Mercer grabbed the second green thug as the light green Rodian fled. He smirked as he stuck his hand into the Rodians chest, injecting the tendril strain of virus into its body. Throwing the infected Rodian towards the other and smashing them into a wall, the light green one cried in shock as his friend exploded into a mass of tentacles atop him, impaling and killing him.

Mercer smirked as he walked towards the mass of infected tissue and absorbed it. He processed the alien DNA and memories, body twitching slightly. He quickly sniffed the air as his eyes went into thermal vision glowing a bright orange. "Come out! I know you're there, I can smell your fear..." Mercer smirked as two figures garbed in brown cloaks fell from the roof above him.


	4. Chapter 4

Daka Gavalun was afraid. He had faced every challenge the council had presented him with fearlessly. He had not cried when he left his family to join the Jedi order. He had not gotten angry when the council had assigned him to babysit a young Twi'lek with stars in her eyes. Yet as he stared into the face of a creature that had devoured four men whole, he felt fear.

The creature was silently staring at them as it sized them up. Daka could feel Lezbiso's fear, her hand twitching toward her lightsaber.

He couldn't understand, he was Arkanian; the pinnacle of evolution. Yet when he stared back into the creatures cold blue eyes he felt fear, the same fear he had felt when he was but a child and was sure there was a monster under his bed.

The creature chuckled as it's claws shifted into five fingered hands. "So I must ask... what are two Jedi doing out here in the back end of the galaxy?" The creature asked a sarcastic tone. Lezbiso shifted into a basic lightsaber combat stance.

"How do you know we are Jedi?" Daka asked as he tried to force the creatures mind away from the idea. Yet he realized too late the creature had no presence within the force. Where the creature stood there was nothing, the only way he could tell the creature was even there was by his own eye sight.

"You're wearing brown robes and carry no weapon, yet I see a slight outline of something near your hip. On a planet like this you want to always appear armed, unless you want to get mugged. You must be hiding lightsabers, if you were a sith you would wear black robes and wear that lightsaber like a badge of honor. Not even the most desperate spice addict would mess with a sith." The creature listed off in a bored tone.

The creature stood completely still not even breathing. "I see, is there going to be a problem?" Daka asked reaching towards his own lightsaber, using the force to bring it to his hand and activating it in all its blue glory. Daka had chosen blue because it brought to mind images of respect and honor. Lezbiso followed suit, activating her purple saber.

"Did you know Rodian's main diet once consisted of insects?" The creature asked inquisitively as it looked up towards the sky, seemingly ignoring them. Lezbiso growled, Daka could sense her sadness and anger. She was obviously upset about the casual way the creature ignored the question and lives it had snuffed out.

"They most likely evolved on a world littered by swamps, where they used their highly adhesive spit to lay traps that insects would get caught in. The solution took months to degrade and would use a series of chemicals and nano toxins to force the insects into a state of hibernation. In this state the insects could remain alive for months, even years."

"Of course they over populated and were forced to start hunting for food. Thus the trait that had allowed them to become the top life form on their home planet would become nothing but a forgotten line of code buried within their DNA." The creature lectured as it smirked.

"So... We can go?" Lezbiso asked, her sadness taking the back seat as she was over whelmed with confusion at the creature's strange lecture.

"I never said that. I just thought I would brighten your pathetic existences with some wisdom." The creature grinned as it rushed towards them. Daka activated his lightsaber as he force shoved the creature back. He was amazed as the creature was launched into the wall, he felt as if he had been trying to move an entire space ship. He already felt so drained.

Lezbiso ran towards the beast as it pulled itself from the wall, cutting off the beast's arm as she ran past. Now that they had it pinned between them, the creature did something amazing. It regrew its arm and laughed. Its newly formed hand turned into a mass of black tissue.

It threw its hand towards Lezbiso. Luckily, Daka force pushed against the beast slowing it's spiked appendage enough for Lezbiso to raise her lightsaber, cutting off the beasts hand yet again. The creature growled as it rushed towards Lezbiso. She attempted to strike the creature and managed to pierce it's chest. The creature was unperturbed though, gripping her by the neck as he threw her into the wall, creating a crater from the impact.

As the creature rushed towards Lezbiso, Daka growled, his strength was drained and the beast was moving too fast to easily hit. He pulled back, aiming for a spot next to his friend. The beast would have to pass it to reach her. He threw his lightsaber, praying it would be fast enough, and watched as the beast rushed into it. The monster was sheared down the middle from head to groin and stopped dead. Daka felt himself preparing to release a cry of victory, but instead watched in horror as the creature's severed halves recombined.

Daka fell to his knees in shock, so drained from his use of the force that he could no longer call back his lightsaber.

The monster's arm took a new form, it grew orange and green pustules. It's hand morphed into a spherical shape covered in those same pustules, orange light pulsating in what looked like a mockery of veins. The creature pulled back as if to throw something and as it's hand moved forward, the orb of its hand disconnected and flew towards Lezbiso, striking her in the chest. Instead of the crack of broken bones Daka had expected, he heard a squelch and looked up in shock.

The orb had exploded on impact, coating his friend in green and orange slime. He watched in despair as his friend struggled against the substance before closing her eyes as her breathing slowed.

Daka focused all his will power as he attempted to pull his lightsaber back. It was not to be, as the creature ripped him from the ground causing the lightsaber to skid uselessly by the beast's feet.

"Do you know why your order failed? It teaches you that emotions are harmful, but guess what? Those same emotions are what allowed your species to evolve to the point they have. Your order takes millions of years of evolution and spits on it." The beast growled as it held Daka aloft.

"Why...Why are you telling me this?" Daka gasped as he struggled to breath in the creature's iron grip. He had to keep it talking just a few more seconds and he would be able to call his saber to his hands.

"I ate my mother, thus she never taught me not to play with my food." The creature grinned as Daka's fallen lightsaber flew towards his hand. The creature grew another arm and caught it mid flight, crushing it as one would a tooth pick. The creature held the blue gem in it's newly formed hand, before a mouth opened in its palm and swallowed it.

"Now that was rude, didn't your mother ever tell you it's impolite to interrupt someone else's meal?" The creature grinned as it shoved its tendrils into Daka's body. In his last moments it hit Daka; he had been afraid of the creature but it was not just his own fear. He had felt the fear in his blood, the midichlorians themselves were afraid...

**Line break**

Mercer was displeased to put his mood in polite terms. He had finally gotten to devour a force user and he had learned quite a bit. The force was a byproduct of midichlorians, a semi sentient, symbiotic, and microscopic form of life living within the blood of most creatures across the universe. The creatures seemed to function on some form of hive mind, communicating across the galaxy with one another.

No doubt the creatures had a home planet and on that home planet, some race had created these creatures for whatever strange reason. There was no way creatures with such abilities could evolve naturally, and they most definitely could not have become so wide spread without the help of some sentient intervention. Now that race was either dead, crazy or even worse in Mercer's opinion, preparing for an invasion. For the creatures now directed the universe, keeping it in a near constant state of flux.

Perhaps the creators of these things had placed them across the universe to weaken it and were even now waiting for the galaxy to be weak enough to strike. Luckily the race was most likely dead since they hadn't invaded already. Still, the idea that such an advanced race existed was of great interest to Mercer.

The force abilities were either purposeful and the race hadn't wanted to invade, or more likely, in Mercer's own opinion, the force was a byproduct of long term exposure to the creatures. Most likely caused by what ever allowed them such long range communication. Though Mercer thought to himself, they also seemed to affect a host's body depending on their temperament. Perhaps they released a form of radiation when exposed to adrenaline?

He had also been unable to devour the creatures. They had committed cellular suicide and destroyed most of their DNA. Mercer had only managed to get some broken pieces of DNA and code. He would need to devour several more force sensitive individuals to get a full look at the creatures DNA.

Mercer was sorely tempted to devour the young Twi'lek but he had bigger plans for her. He was actually quite proud of himself, the Rodians had been far more valuable than he had hoped. With their DNA he had been able to create one new power and upgrade an existing one. He could now throw a chunk of biomass that would explode with a higher concentration of the adhesive once used by the ancient Rodians.

He had also improved his tendril bomb. When a creature was injected with the tendril strain it would force the creature to sweat the same adhesive, allowing his thrown bombs to stick to his enemies. Mercer eyed the young Twi'lek, throwing her over his shoulders as he took to the roof tops, sprinting across the city wall and landing next to his ship.

The Twi'lek would be the key to him working his way up the imperial ladder of power. He needed to get the disguise of another soldier. One that hadn't disappeared on a routine check up mission. He could then turn the girl in, making it possible to meet the higher ups and take their place.

Mercer smirked as he planned his distant future. First though, he would visit this Arkanian home world. It sounded interesting. Mercer walked into his ship, smirk firmly in place and threw the Twi'lek down in the corner. Argo was floating in the map room seemingly not worried about the apparent kidnapping, his Wookie and Abyssin flanking him. "Well, engines are all fixed up and I threw in some repairs to the auto pilot and the star map. Pay up." Argos explained with his hand held out expecting cash.

Mercer took his hand and watched, face remaining impassive as Argo screamed. Argos had felt spikes pierce his hand as a tentacle grew from the hole. He screamed as his hand turned black and was pulled into the man who had saved his life. Argo felt the life draining out of him as he was pulled into the smirking monster.

Ragnar roared as he fired his bow caster, striking Mercer in the head. The Abbysin screeched, firing its blaster into Mercer's chest. It was in vain though, as Mercer kept moving regardless of the hole in his head and chest. He jumped over the Wookie, grabbing it by the head mid flight and using his immense weight and strength, he broke the Wookies neck. He kept moving even as the Wookie was pulled into his body. The Abbysin attempted to flee but was impaled by a fist through his gut, groaning as he felt the life bleed out of him.

**Line break**

Mercer was standing on the outside of the city, scowl in place as he stuck his hand into the ground, tendrils digging thousands of feet down. They created a large chamber but were stopped from finishing by a large red crystal. Mercer growled as he flowed into the ground, arriving to glare at the crystal that blocked his construction.

Apparently, this planet was full of the same crystals that Jedi used in their lightsabers. His tendrils were only able to chip off bits of the crystal. Mercer smirked as he pulled out the crystal he had collected from the broken remains of Daka's lightsaber. Mercer focused as the tendrils created a devourer and dropped the crystal into the creature's mouth.

Mercer watched, smile upon his face as the crystal became liquid, a nearby tendril reaching down and devouring it. The tendril coated itself in the liquidated rock, before beginning to mine the giant crystal again. It tore through it like wet tissue paper. The bits broken off by the tendril were collected by the devourer and then applied to another tendril.

Mercer stuck his hand into the ground again, forming a large brain, a hive mind. It was not overly useful to Mercer himself, he was his own hive mind and as long as a single bit of Blacklight survived, he could reform. The hive served two purposes. If an evolved were destroyed they would be able to reform either here or on any other world with a hive mind. He would not allow history to repeat itself, he would not risk the lives of his evolved again.

It would also direct his tendrils and creatures in his absence. It quickly formed a nest and began producing more tendrils and Devourersm while also producing hydras to help tunnel. He would turn this planet's underground into a massive hive mind. He had given it an order not to breach the surface until he gave the command. The creature was slowly producing its own biomass but its main source were the fossils that littered the underground.

Mercer smiled as the devourers began vomiting upon the hive mind; encasing it in the red crystal. Mercer flowed back to the surface and jumped back to his ship's landing pad. He climbed aboard and set his course. If anyone had seen the grin on his face they would have ran in terror.


End file.
